Library deserves credit for extending hours for finals

As students plan walkouts and voice their outrage about Seton Hall’s on-campus security, I think we should spend a moment to commend the library for reverting back to 24/7 hours for final exams. The library will begin extended hours starting Dec. 6, nine days before final examinations officially take place.

Personally, not having the library open past 5 p.m. on Saturdays was a major aggravation. Many students, myself included, work on the weekends and would get back to campus after our 9-5 shifts. As if studying was not difficult enough already, our University’s center of learning shut me out any Saturday I felt motivated to work.

Thankfully, the library has recognized that the final weeks of the semester are often the most difficult. As a student in the humanities, last semester I had five final papers to write before exams; when everything was finished, I had written over 60 pages. If I did not have the library open until the sunrise (I’m an insomniac as it is), I never could have finished.

I know I am not alone in this situation; not only are there many insomniacs at Seton Hall (just check your Facebook messager at 3 a.m.), but there are also many students balancing papers that need our library’s available resources. This is the time for all the indignant students who protested the cut in hours to prove that if the library is open 24/7, it will be used.

Hopefully the student reaction will be influential enough to modify the current hours. Mid-October should have a 24/7 week or two; midterm season is a time when an environment conducive to cramming and late night paper writing is necessary for many students. The library should not change the ways or times students study, but should encourage learning at all times.

However, I am sympathetic of our current cost cuts. Because the library is already adding more time to 24/7 hours, I believe that our University is admirably reconciling spending with studying. The library could use a few more modifications to the current schedule, but this first initiative is definitely a step in the right direction.